Tag Archives: slavery

“Reading the History of Slavery: 3 Experts Offer Book Recommendations”

On the ways the history of slavery informs our present.

Crystal Eddins: “The First Ayitian Revolution”

“And given that the island was essentially a black space from the mid-1500s forward, we can think of this historical trajectory not in terms of the maroons fighting back against empires, but as empires attempting to repress – and in some cases to co-opt – those who had already liberated themselves.”

Mohammed Elnaiem: “Did Kongolese Catholicism Lead to Slave Revolutions?”

“The legacy of Kimpa Vita, a Kongolese woman Catholic mystic, was felt from the U.S. to Haiti.”

Benjamin Studebaker: “Why Rebellions and Revolutions don’t Work Very Well”

“An unease is spreading, but it is not the unease in which people see the slavery for what it is, grab their pitchforks, and rebel. The bio/soc technology is too strong for that now, and the massive advancements in sur/co technology over the last century would make any such rebellion short-lived. No, it is a different sort of unease–a sense that things aren’t working, that something is wrong, but the cause is unclear.”